May 24, 2026

You are probably aware of the forecast in Zirconia… ten days of rain… your heart drops, and you fear the weather will ruin your daughter’s camp experience. “What will she do all day? Will she be cold? Will she be sad? Will this ruin camp? Is the camp in a floodplain? Will she be safe?”

A quick response to these questions seems in order, so here goes!

What will we do all day? The short answer is the same thing. Greystone is located in a temperate rain forest, and this makes our area perfect for summer camps. There are over 60 camps that are located here for this very reason! Camp is perfect in these conditions! Our forecast typically shows a high chance of rain every day. Most of the time, the rain falls for a few minutes and then moves on. We don’t adjust anything in those circumstances. If it is raining hard, we still have classes on a normal schedule (playing, swimming, running, walking, fishing, land sports, biking, sailing, canoeing, and kayaking all go on as usual). When was the last time your daughter played in the rain? Here, everyone celebrates rain as “liquid sunshine,” and camp is more memorable for the moment!

Will she be cold? These girls delight in the rain… it amazes me to see them walking to class in bathing suits with faces turned to the sky and twirling as they savor the feeling. I can’t do it, but they love it! Her raincoat might get a lot of use, but even if she never puts it on, she will be able to dry off and put on a cozy sweatshirt and a dry pair of socks. The cabins are very comfortable in the rain; the sound from the tin roofs is divine! Snuggling under her blanket during a rainy rest hour will be delightful.

Will she be sad? Probably not. No promise that she will not have a moment or two that she will push through, but know that she will do it, and this resilience will be a huge component of the value of camp in her life. Here we learn how to do “hard things”. Every situation has a positive side; we just have to find it. When everyone around you is doing this, it is surprisingly easy to find the good, laugh, and move on.

Will this ruin camp? NO! We have had summers where it rained HARD for weeks on end. One summer had 20 straight days of rain (it got so muddy outside the dining hall, girls were losing their shoes in the muck… we added a stone patio and walkway the next year!), and it was amazing. Campers and counselors still talk of that summer with huge smiles and wonderful memories. Re-enrollment rates from that summer 13 years ago were only surpassed last year!

Will she be safe (is the camp in a floodplain)? She will definitely be safe and rest assured that no camp buildings (except the barn) are in a floodplain. When Hurricane Helene devastated WNC a couple of years ago, camp was fine. The water rose to record heights (a one-in-five-hundred-year flood), but did not affect any building other than the barn (which had 3 feet of water). The danger of lightning (which is real and we take very seriously) is well understood and mitigated.

So come to camp with glad hearts. Know that we are not concerned about anything, and your camper is going to have a blast!

See you tomorrow!